David Hughes is the Daily Telegraph's chief leader writer. He has been covering British politics for 30 years.

Oprah Winfrey has unleashed a purple gush

I blame Oprah Winfrey. Back in November she delivered a delicious soundbite to greet Barack Obama's presidential triumph.

"This is a moment not just for Barack and his family", said the queen of American telly, "it's a moment for America. It says there won't just be red states and blue states, it means the colour purple rules."

And the colour puple has been ruling ever since, infecting the prose of commentators the world over. As the big event approaches, so the purple gush has grown.

"This 47-year-old man of mixed race, whose very name – O-Ba-Ma – has the three-syllable universality of a child's lullaby, has always had something of the providential about him, a global figure who looks more like the guy at the local bodega than the guys on dollar bills. That's the magic."

"Today a magic spell will be performed. A man who 12 weeks ago was a mere political candidate will be transformed with the incantation of a few words, before a vast crowd and a television audience in the hundreds of millions if not billions, into the head of state, even the embodiment, of the most powerful nation on earth. "

Not to be outdone, in the same paper Polly Toynbee takes a slug at the cynics and naysayers (such as this blog, presumably) as she offers her down-to earth take on the Obama coronation:

"There has never been a day like it for Britain's postwar generations. As that inauguration speech echoes out, the globe itself seems to inhale a mighty, collective intake of breath, frighteningly audacious in its hope. A BBC World Service poll shows a tidal wave of optimism about what Obama will do, spread out across a rainbow of nations. Here is the world's wish list: first save global finance from ruin; next get out of Iraq; then fix the climate and bring peace to the Middle East. Yes he can, is the world's expectation."